


Selection

by enkaychi



Series: Dragon Fire [1]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 22:03:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1165062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enkaychi/pseuds/enkaychi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whoever was chosen at a Selection Ball would not be an Honored Spouse. They would be tribute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Music. Dancing. Shining lights. Sparkling clothes. Gold leafed furniture. A sample of every food imaginable. The whole situation was bullshit.  
  
A System Lord’s Selection Ball was an ostentatious display of excess and wasted credits. Worse than any planetary ruling family’s was, Jaejoong imagined from what he’d heard from his older sisters.  
  
Jaejoong had never been to one himself. He shouldn’t have had to attend this one. He should have been safe.  
  
He looked around at his dancing and laughing age mates while trying to keep himself inconspicuous at his corner table. They all should have been safe.  
  
The Ruling Class of the Terran Empire chose their first spouses from the Second Class, the children of government and religious officials and important businessmen, those families who had earned their higher position in society instead of being born to it. In the Empire’s early days, royal spouses were chosen from the First Class, the empire’s nobility. This had changed after the First Great War, almost two thousand years ago.  
  
It was supposed to be an honor, a privilege, a way to show all the peoples of the empire that social mobility was possible. And for the most part that’s what the Second Class considered it. The young men in women of eligible age all donned their silver and gold formal wear for their assigned day of the week long event. They were escorted by their mother’s and father’s to the closest landing bay and they let themselves be beamed on to their System Lord’s flagship like a herd of good little sheep and during the ball they tried their best to make sure their graciousness stood out among the other sheep.  
  
Jaejoong would have spent the entire night staring mutinously at the ground if it wouldn’t have made him stand out all the more. He compromised by letting himself be shuffled to a table near one of the corner’s of the large ballroom and observing the going ons of the night without appearing to be angry he was there. A shy and reluctant potential spouse was to be expected, a hostile one would have been cause for closer scrutiny. After all, they were all most honored and privileged to be there.  
  
It was a bullshit nightmare.  
  
The sons and daughters of their planet’s ruling family had all already chosen spouses, Jaejoong had been too young to attend a Selection Ball then. Their System Lord’s children were all very young. By the time they were old enough to hold their balls Jaejoong would have been too old. It was perfect. He should have been safe.  
  
But the Ruling Class was full of greedy usurpers. It was not enough that they were in control of an entire planet, not enough that they were in control of an entire system of planets. They wanted more control, more territory, more power. Always more, more, more.  
  
The Emperor usually kept them all in check, but occasionally one managed to slip through his iron grip.  
  
The most recent had been the Panther Lord, Sung Oh, whose territory consisted of fourteen relatively insignificant planets, a small pittance in the large scheme of things.  
  
The Panther System had once been much larger and more influential, totaling over two hundred planets but generations of lords with poor decision making skills had seen their planets assigned to other systems. The Panther Lords were rarely fighters and more rarely ambitious so none had ever tried to regain their lost planets until Lord Sung Oh.  
  
Lord Sung Oh had reduced three planets to little more than fields of ash and smoke in his quest for more territory before the Imperial Fleet had stopped him. The emperor had relieved his body of its head in one fell stroke. His execution had been broadcast over the entire empire. His family had been exiled and the Panther System had been absorbed by the Dragon System.  
  
With over three hundred fifty planets it was one of the largest systems in the Empire. Jaejoong’s planet was now in the Dragon System. That in itself was not a bad thing. The Dragon System had resources and opportunities Jaejoong had only ever dreamed of before. There was just one small problem.  
  
The Dragon Lord had an unmarried son.  
  
Prince Yunho was the reason Jaejoong was suffering through this nightmare. The Prince had been in the second year of his Selection Balls when the Panther System had been dissolved. Princes and princesses of the ruling class held a Selection Ball for each planet in their system until they found someone they found suitable enough to marry. For small systems the process lasted only a few months. For systems as large as the Dragon System the process could take years, depending on how particular a prince or princess was.  
  
The Dragon Lord had rearranged the Selection Ball schedule to include his newly acquired planets as soon as possible. Every unmarried member of the Second Class between the ages of sixteen and twenty five was summoned to attend. Jaejoong’s planet was the last of the former Panther System the Prince would visit. If it had been one of the first, Jaejoong would not have been able to attend.  
  
He had turned sixteen last month. Only those of the proper age at the time of their planet’s Selection Ball were forced to attend. It was an ugly turn of bad luck for Jaejoong.  
  
Theoretically, Jaejoong’s father could have refused the invitation, but there were consequences for such an action. Maybe not direct consequences from the Ruling Class, it was not as if they were forcing the Second Class into a marriage, but his father’s peers would see his refusal as arrogance beyond his station. After all, which of them had a child who was too good to marry a prince? Their entire family would suffer for it.  
  
In reality, it was unlikely that Prince Yunho would choose a spouse from one of the former Panther System’s backwater planets, but there was an itch in the back of Jaejoong’s mind, a tiny voice whispering ‘what if?’  
  
Jaejoong didn’t want to know the answer to ‘what if?’  
  
Whoever was chosen at a Selection Ball would not be an Honored Spouse. They would be tribute, not even a commodity bought and paid for, they would just be taken used however their new spouse wished. They would see themselves taken from their families, their marriage consummated before an audience, and then subject to their new spouses desires, both desirable and undesirable alike.  
  
A prince or princess was obligated to take a member of the Second Class as their first spouse, and consummate the marriage, but what they did with them after that was their own business. Of course no ‘Honored Spouse’ had ever appeared in public in anything less than perfect condition but medical doctors could fix and hide a great many problems.  
  
Jaejoong was sure there were some princes and princesses who treated their spouses with kindness and respect but he had no desire to find out for himself.  
  
So Jaejoong attended this ball. He sat at his corner table. He answered whenever someone asked him a question and made his own polite inquiries in return. When he was asked to dance he smiled sheepishly and reluctantly admitted to being clumsy on his feet and would then be left alone, of course no one would want to showcase any deficiencies at such an important event, perfectly understandable. He did his best to appear nothing more than ordinary and went home that night without any concern.  
  
In his desperation, Jaejoong had forgotten that no matter how banal he made his personality seem, his face was anything but ordinary.


	2. Chapter 2

When Jaejoong woke up the next morning it wasn’t in the same place he had fallen asleep. The first thing he noticed was the noise, an endless grinding. 

He panicked and attempted to climb out of the bed, falling when his feet didn’t quite touch the floor. He winced at the sharp pain, rubbing his side to dull it. He would have never fallen off his bed, he could get in and out of it with his eyes closed, and even if he did he wouldn’t have hurt himself. The floor of his bedroom was covered in a plush, beige carpet. This was not Jaejoong’s floor. He’d fallen on cold, hard, what was this? Jaejoong patted the floor. It felt slick. It looked like wood, but it didn’t feel like it. 

Why had he fallen? Jaejoong stood up. The top of the mattress was taller than his hip. This bed was too high. This was not Jaejoong’s bed, not the bed he had collapsed on last night after returning from the Selection Ball, not the bed that had provided him comfort for most of his life.

And that damn noise. Jaejoong knew that noise. He whipped his head from side to side. Bed. Side tables. Ugly paintings. Doorway, no door. No windows.

He needed windows. Jaejoong stumbled through the doorway into the adjacent livings space. Sofas. Glass tables. More ugly paintings. Holodeck. Windows. Good. Covered windows, but still windows.

Jaejoong walked past the lavish sofas and translucent tables, nearly walking into one, over to one of the large windows at the far side of the room.

He shook his head like something was stuck on it. Or in it. That noise. That noise. 

Jaejoong had heard that sound once before and once was enough to never forget it. When he’d been a child he’d begged his father to take him up on one of the large freight ships that periodically docked in their ports. His father had agreed after much pestering, taking Jaejoong along on one of the routine cargo inspections. He had covered his ears with his hands as soon as they had beamed onto the ship, wincing at what had sounded to him like screeching and grinding.

His father had explained later, that it was the sound of the ships engines. There were sound dampeners in place and most space travelers never noticed the sound. It was a low constant hum they disregarded the way Jaejoong might think nothing of the sound of trees rustling in the wind. It was just background noise to them but to someone who spent their entire life planetside, it was a siren letting Jaejoong know something was wrong. It wasn’t actually loud, but it was different enough to stand out, the way a building demolition would stand out in a city among the chatter of pedestrians and the woosh of passing hover cars. That sound terrified Jaejoong. It was something unique, something different. Something not from home.

Jaejoong raised a hand to press the consul on the wall that would lift the panels covering the windows when he felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck. A hand flew to his neck and whipped his body around staggering backwards until his back was pressed against the wall. 

He blinked rapidly as vision started to blur, barely making out a white covered figure as he slid down against the wall and crumpled in a heap on the floor.

-

The next time Jaejoong woke he could barely move. He tried to lift a hand to scratch at the unrelenting itch in his neck but his arm wouldn’t budge. His limbs felt like they were tied to bags of stone weighing him down and holding him in place. Even turning his head to the side felt like it would take too much energy to accomplish. However, unlike the first time he had awoken in this unfamiliar place, Jaejoong didn’t feel panicked.

It was a curious matter. He knew he was on a space ship, that sound recalled from distant childhood memories was as recognizable to him as the sound of his mother’s voice. He didn’t know where he was or how he had gotten there. He didn’t know if he was on land or in space, or even if he was still anywhere near his home planet. He didn’t know why he had been taken or what would be done to him. All he could see was the white of the ceiling above the bed and some pieces of furniture out of the corner of his eyes and he couldn’t get out of the bed to further investigate his surroundings, but none of that mattered. 

He just felt calm, as if everything would be alright if just kept still and laid on this bed.

Not even the voices he could hear growing steadily louder gave him cause for concern and nor did the content of the words being exchanged.

“…had to dose him again, he woke up,” a mid toned voice said.

“That’s impossible,” a second voice said, this one higher pitched. “Those drugs are strong enough to knock out a full grown dragon.”

“Well he did,” the first voice said. “I found him running around in here.”

Jaejoong wondered who they were talking about. Maybe they had a prisoner. Maybe it was him. Was he a prisoner. That would be interesting.

His thoughts drifted away from the conversation he was listening to. He had never been a prisoner before. Maybe it would be exciting. It might be fun even! Although he hoped that would let him lie down a little while longer, it really was quite relaxing. He felt better than he had in months.

“…check him again. Maybe you missed something the first time,” the second voice was saying when Jaejoong started to pay attention again. The voices were much closer now. If Jaejoong had to guess, he would say they were in the room with him.

“I didn’t miss anything,” the first voice snapped. “He’s just some teenager from some backwater planet in some backwater system. He’s got a pretty face but he’s nothing special.”

“That backwater system is part of our system now, so hold your tongue,” the second voice chastised. “Just get another sample. We’ll both be in trouble if he reacts poorly to the rewriting and the transformation.” 

The voices sounded like they were right next to him now but he still couldn’t see anyone.

Jaejoong felt a prick on his arm. Ow, that had hurt.

“Did he just flinch?” the first voice asked. “Probably just a reflex right?”

“His eyes are open.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. It happens sometimes.”

“No, look at the readings,” the second voice said. “He’s awake.”

“Shit!”

Maybe they were talking about him, Jaejoong thought.

“It told you, you missed something!” the second voice said furiously. 

“We’ll have to dose him again.”

“Are you crazy? That might kill him, and it’ll be both our asses on the execution block,” the second voice argued. “Give him this instead.”

“The wedding’s tomorrow. What if he wakes up again before then?” the first voice asked.

“We’ll just have to monitor him, keep him asleep.”

“What if it messes up the tethering? We won’t have to worry about the execution block then. The prince will just kill us, no trial.”

There was silence and another prick to Jaejoong’s arm.

“We can’t think like that. We’ll worry about it when it happens,” the second voice said.

“When!” the first voice all but screeched. It hurt Jaejoong’s ears.

“If,” the second voice corrected hurriedly, “if it happens.”

How fascinating, Jaejoong though before slipping into unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jaejoong looked back on this moment he would remember it like something that had happened in a fever dream, fuzzy, unclear real and not real. Impossible things that made sense when they were happening but would later to his rational mind seem irreconcilable with the realm of things he knew to be possible.

But most of all he’d remember the cold, a burning, scorching cold trying to burn him from the inside out.

He couldn’t see. Everything was too bright, like a planet had drifted so close to it’s sun that the light reflecting off every surface shone too radiantly to give anything shape or form.

He couldn’t move. His limbs felt like lead, weighed down by something greater than their own weight.

He couldn’t hear. If silence had a sound this would have been it and it was loud enough to deafen him.

Through the white plane of open space he could make out small pockets of darkness, specks of shadow on a brilliant canvas. They glowed black, shining as brightly in the light as stars in the midnight skies. Jaejoong would have died happily if that darkness had chosen to devour him.

Later he would say that the darkness had devoured him, that it had pulled him under, swallowed him whole and refused to let him go. That it had had seduced him with smooth whispers and gentle caresses. That it had stolen all that he was with a single question.

_Aren’t you mine._

And an answer he might never know the full repercussions of.

_Yours._  
  
And the darkness had incited in him a frenzy the likes of which he had never experienced.

And although he would learn later that his experience both was and wasn’t unique, for the delirium was simply a natural part of the transformation, he would also learn, unlike the others of his kind, exactly what had been taken from him when he thought he’d given it away.


End file.
